Time synchronization or clock distribution in a timing dependent system or network, e.g. a telecommunications network, is usually subject to very strict specifications for frequency stability, e.g. as specified in ITU-T recommendations G.803, G.812, G.813, G.823, G.824, G.8262 and/or many others. The nodes in a (telecommunication) network often receive timing information from an external, network wide reference. This can be a dedicated clock signal with very stable frequency, or it can be a data clock extracted from the incoming data communication links. This clock information is compared with the output clock signal from a local reference oscillator to determine the error-offset of this local reference oscillator. The local reference clock signal, corrected by the determined error-offset, is then used to generate the desired frequencies required by the transmitted communication links, and to maintain a system clock signal during periods of failure of the external reference clock signal (hold-over). This mechanism implies that the frequency stability of the system clock is tightly locked to the frequency stability of its local oscillator, even in the presence of an external reference clock signal. However, the output frequency of a typically used local oscillator is typically sensitive to temperature variations, which threaten the required stability. Although there exist oscillators such as Rubidium or atomic clocks which are more or less insensitive to temperature variations, those clocks are generally too expensive and/or too big in size to be used e.g. in nodes of communication networks.